My Digital Bookshelf

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou · 2009

Letters to Milena

Franz Kafka · 2015

Letters to a Young Poet (Penguin Classics)

Rainer Maria Rilke · 2014

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez · 2021

The landmark, prize-winning, international bestselling examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women.<br/><br/>#1 International Bestseller * Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award * Winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize<br/><br/>Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems.<br/><br/>And women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias: in time, in money, and often with their lives.<br/><br/>Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates this shocking root cause of gender inequality in Invisible Women. Examining the home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more, Criado Perez unearths a dangerous pattern in data and its consequences on women’s lives.<br/><br/>Product designers use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to everything from pianos to cell phones to voice recognition software, when in fact this approach is designed to fit men. Cities prioritize men’s needs when designing public transportation, roads, and even snow removal, neglecting to consider women’s safety or unique responsibilities and travel patterns. And in medical research, women have largely been excluded from studies and textbooks, leaving them chronically misunderstood, mistreated, and misdiagnosed.<br/><br/>Built on hundreds of studies in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, highly readable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

A Grief Observed

C S Lewis · 2023

War of the Foxes

Richard Siken · 2015

“This may be the most anticipated poetry book of the last decade...expect it to haunt you.”—NPR.org<br/>In reviewing Richard Siken's first book, Crush, the New York Times wrote that "his territory is [where] passion and eloquence collide and fuse." In this long-awaited follow-up to Crush, Siken turns toward the problems of making and representation, in an unrelenting interrogation of our world of doublings. In this restless, swerving book simple questions—such as, Why paint a bird?—are immediately complicated by concerns of morality, human capacity, and the ways we look to art for meaning and purpose while participating in its—and our own—invention.<br/>* "Slippery, magnetic riffs on the arbitrary divisions made by the human mind in light of the mathematical abstractions that delete them; poetry lovers will want to read."—Library Journal, starred review<br/>"[P]oems of passion, examining what it means to love, to be, and to create."—Vanity Fair<br/>"Siken’s stark, startling collection focuses tightly on both the futility and the importance of creating art."—Booklist<br/>“Poems primarily about painting and representation give way to images that become central characters in a sequence of fable-like pieces. Animals, landscapes, objects, and an array of characters serve as sites for big, human questions to play out in distilled form. Siken’s sense of line has become more uniform, this steadiness punctuated by moments of cinematic urgency.”—Publishers Weekly<br/>"War of the Foxes builds upon the lush and frantic magic of Richard Siken’s first book, Crush. In this second book, Siken takes breathtaking control of the rich, varied material he has chosen...Siken paints and erases—the metaphor of painting with words allows him to leave those traces that mostly go unseen. He is the Trickster. If paint/then no paint. He does this with astonishing candor and passion."—The Rumpus<br/>The Museum<br/>Two lovers went to the museum and wandered the rooms.<br/>He saw a painting and stood in front of it<br/>for too long. It was a few minutes before she<br/>realized he had gotten stuck. He was stuck looking<br/>at a painting. She stood next to him, looking at his<br/>face and then the face in the painting. What do you<br/>see? she asked. I don't know, he said. He didn't<br/>know. She was disappointed, then bored. He was<br/>looking at a face and she was looking at her watch.<br/>This is where everything changed . . .<br/>Richard Siken is a poet, painter, and filmmaker. His first book, Crush, won the Yale Younger Poets' prize. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

What the Living Do: Poems

Marie Howe · 1999

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Kaveh Akbar · 2017

Night Sky with Exit Wounds

Ocean Vuong · 2016

<p>The New Yorker, The Best Books of Poetry of 2016 <br> New York Times, Critics Pick<br> Boston Globe, Best Books listing<br> Miami Herald, Best LGBTQ Books<br> San Francisco Chronicle, Top 100 Books of the Year<br> Library Journal, Best Books of 2016</p><br><p>"There is a powerful emotional undertow to these poems that springs from Mr. Vuong's sincerity and candor, and from his ability to capture specific moments in time with both photographic clarity and a sense of the evanescence of all earthly things."-New York Times</p><br><p>"From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion."--New Yorker</p><br><p>"Extraordinary."--Los Angeles Times</p><br><p>"Ecstatic, bawdy, haunted, and brilliant with the pressures of its arrival."--Boston Globe</p><br><p>Ocean Vuong's first full-length collection aims straight for the perennial "big"--and very human--subjects of romance, family, memory, grief, war, and melancholia. None of these he allows to overwhelm his spirit or his poems, which demonstrate, through breath and cadence and unrepentant."</p><br><p>Torso of Air</p><br><p>Suppose you do change your life.<br> & the body is more than<br> a portion of night--sealed<br> with bruises. Suppose you woke<br> & found your shadow replaced<br> by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful<br> & gone. So you take the knife to the wall<br> instead. You carve & carve<br> until a coin of light appears<br> & you get to look in, at last, <br> on happiness. The eye<br> staring back from the other side--<br> Waiting.</p>

Banana Fish, Vol. 1 (1)

Akimi Yoshida · 2004

Nana, Volume 1

Ai Yazawa · 2005

Attack on Titan Vol. 1

Hajime Isayama · 2013

In this post-apocalytpic sci-fi story, humanity has been devastated by the bizarre, giant humanoids known as the Titans. Little is known about where they came from or why they are bent on consuming mankind. Seemingly unintelligent, they have roamed the world for years, killing everyone they see. For the past century, what's left of man has hidden in a giant, three-walled city. People believe their 100-meter-high walls will protect them from the Titans, but the sudden appearance of an immense Titan is about to change everything. Winner of the 2011 Kodansha Manga Award (Shonen) and nominated for the prestigious Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize for 2012.

Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1 (1)

Akutami, Gege · 2019

<b>To gain the power he needs to save his friend from a cursed spirit, Yuji Itadori swallows a piece of a demon, only to find himself caught in the midst of a horrific war of the supernatural!</b><br><br>In a world where cursed spirits feed on unsuspecting humans, fragments of the legendary and feared demon Ryomen Sukuna have been lost and scattered about. Should any demon consume Sukuna’s body parts, the power they gain could destroy the world as we know it. Fortunately, there exists a mysterious school of jujutsu sorcerers who exist to protect the precarious existence of the living from the supernatural!<br><br>Although Yuji Itadori looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Research Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object. Little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal…

On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)

Seneca · 2005

Lie with Me

Philippe Besson · 2020

The Great Believers

Rebecca Makkai · 2018

WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS WINNER OF THE STONEWALL BOOK AWARD - BARBARA GITTINGS LITERATURE AWARD FINALIST FOR THE LA TIMES FICTION AWARD 'Stirring, spellbinding and full of life' Téa Obreht, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup: bringing an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDs epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, he finds his partner is infected, and that he might even have the virus himself. The only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago epidemic, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways the AIDS crisis affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. Yale and Fiona's stories unfold in incredibly moving and sometimes surprising ways, as both struggle to find goodness in the face of disaster.

Swimming in the Dark: A Novel

Tomasz Jedrowski · 2021

The Song of Achilles: A Novel

Madeline Miller · 2012

A New York Times Bestseller<br/>“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art….A book I could not put down.” —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House<br/>A thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War from the bestselling author of Circe<br/>A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.<br/>“A captivating retelling of The Iliad and events leading up to it through the point of view of Patroclus: it’s a hard book to put down, and any classicist will be enthralled by her characterisation of the goddess Thetis, which carries the true savagery and chill of antiquity.” — Donna Tartt, The Times

Giovannis Room

Baldwin, James

Brokeback Mountain

Annie Proulx · 2010

The Prettiest Star (Cold Mountain Fund Series)

Sickels Carter · 2020

In Memoriam: A novel

Alice Winn · 2023

The Heart's Invisible Furies

John Boyne · 2017

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini · 2008

Normal People: A Novel

Sally Rooney · 2020

<b>NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (<i>People</i>) from the author of <i>Conversations with Friends,</i> “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan).</b><br> <br><b>“[A] novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting.”—<i>The Washington Post</i></b><br><br><b>ONE OF <i>ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY</i>’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE</b><br><br><b>TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: <i>People, Slate,</i> The New York Public Library, <i>Harvard Crimson</i></b><br><br>Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins.<br><br>A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.<br><br><i>Normal People</i> is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.<br> <br><b>WINNER: The British Book Award, The Costa Book Award, The An Post Irish Novel of the Year, <i>Sunday Times </i>Young Writer of the Year Award</b><br><br><b>BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: <i>The New York Times</i>, <i>The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, Time,</i> NPR, <i>The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country</i></b>

Madonna in a Fur Coat: A Novel

Sabahattin Ali · 2017

The End of Loneliness: A Novel

Benedict Wells · 2019

From internationally bestselling author Benedict Wells, a sweeping novel of love and loss, and of the lives we never get to live<br/><br/>“[D]azzling storytelling...The End of Loneliness is both affecting and accomplished -- and eternal.” —John Irving<br/><br/>"An exquisitely wrought and utterly absorbing meditation upon life, loss and love." —Ian McEwan<br/><br/>Jules Moreau’s childhood is shattered after the sudden death of his parents. Enrolled in boarding school where he and his siblings, Marty and Liz, are forced to live apart, the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats inward, preferring to live within his memories – until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief. Fifteen years pass and the siblings remain strangers to one another, bound by tragedy and struggling to recover the family they once were. Jules, still adrift, is anchored only by his desires to be a writer and to reunite with Alva, who turned her back on their friendship on the precipice of it becoming more. But, just as it seems they can make amends for time wasted, invisible forces – whether fate or chance – intervene.<br/><br/>A kaleidoscopic family saga told through the fractured lives of the three Moreau siblings, alongside a faltering, recovering love story, The End of Loneliness is a stunning meditation on the power of our memories, of what can be lost and what can never be let go. With inimitable compassion and luminous, affecting prose, Benedict Wells contends with what it means to find a way through life, while never giving up hope you will find someone to go with you.

Atonement: A Novel

Ian McEwan · 2003

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from the acclaimed Booker Prize–winning, internationally bestselling author. One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century “A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama.” —John Updike, The New Yorker On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia’s childhood friend. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives—together with her precocious literary gifts—brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime’s repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.

Notes from Underground (Vintage Classics)

Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1994

<b>Award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky give us a brilliantly faithful rendition of this classic novel, in all its tragedy and tormented comedy. In this second edition, they have updated their translation in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth.</b> <br><br>One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator of Dostoevsky's most revolutionary novel is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In full retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition

Fernando Pessoa · 2017

The Brothers Karamazov (Bicentennial Edition): A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue

Fyodor Dostoevsky · 2021

Winner of the Pen/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize<br/><br/>The award-winning translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel of psychological realism.<br/><br/>The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, its social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.<br/><br/>This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.

The Myth of Sisyphus (Vintage International)

Albert Camus · 2018

East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

John Steinbeck · 1952

The Passion According to G.H. (New Directions Books)

Clarice Lispector · 2012

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (Random House Large Print)

John Green · 2021

“Masterful. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a beautiful, timely book about the human condition—and a timeless reminder to pay attention to your attention.” —Adam Grant, #1 bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking<br/><br/>Instant #1 bestseller! A deeply moving collection of personal essays from John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down.<br/><br/>“Gloriously personal and life-affirming. The perfect book for right now.” —People<br/>“Essential to the human conversation.” —Library Journal, starred review<br/><br/>The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar. Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity.<br/><br/>John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. The Anthropocene Reviewed is an open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.